Ancient See of Skara

SCARAE; SKARONENSIS, SCARENSIS).

Located in Sweden; suffragan to
Hamburg (990-1104), to Lund (1104-64), and finally to Upsala
(1164-1530). This diocese, the most ancient in Sweden, included
the Counties of Skaraborg, Elfsborg, and Vermland. It was founded
about 990 at Skara, the capital of the country of the Goths
(Gauthiod), the whole of which it embraced until about 1100, when
the eastern portion of the Diocese of Skara was formed into that
of Linkoping. At the beginning there was no strict division of the
country into dioceses, and the missionary bishops went about
preaching wherever they would. Thus it is that, though Odinkar
Hvite the Elder was apparently the first bishop stationed at Skara
about 990, Sigurd, a court bishop of King Olaf Tryggveson of
Norway, is named as the first Bishop of Skara in the list of
bishops written down about 1325 as an appendix to the Laws os the
Western Goths (Vestgotalagen). It is added that he founded three
churches in Vestergotland, and he also seems to have baptized Olaf
Skotkonung, first Christian King of Sweden, at Husaby near Skara
in 1008. Odinkar's successor was Thurgaut, first diocesan Bishop
of Skara (about 1012-30). He was nominally succeeded by Gotskalk,
a monk of the Benedictine abbey at Luneburg, who never left his
abbey, although he had been consecrated to the See of Skara by
Archbishop Liavizo of Hamburg (1030-32). Meanwhile Sigurd, or
Sigfrid, an Englishman of Scandinavian origin and a monk of
Glastonbury (?), took possession of the See of Skara about 1031,
and remained there till after 1043. Although he entered into
communication with Bremen and sent his relative and successor
Osmund to be educated there, both Sigurd and Osmund seem to have
been regarded as intruders by the Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen.
Osmund was consecrated in Poland, and refused to acknowledge the
primacy of Hamburg. In this refusal he was supported by King Anund
Jacob. Consequently when Adalvard the Elder, subdean of Bremen,
who had been consecrated Bishop of Skara by Archbishop Adalbert on
the death of Bishop Gotskalk, came to Skara about 1050 to take
possession of his see, he was prevented from doing so, and had to
wait for Osmund's departure for England in 1057 (?) before he
could become Bishop of Skara de facto. Adalvard the Elder
died in 1060 and was buried near the first Cathedral of St. Mary,
which he had built. Acelin, dean of Bremen, was consecrated bishop
in 1061, but never took possession of the see. Adalvard the
younger, who had visited and buried his elder namesake in 1060,
was invited on his expulsion from the See of Siguna in 1067 to
become Bishop of Skara, but was recalled to Bremen by Archbishop
Adalbert.

Of the next four bishops of Skara
hardly anything is known. Concerning Bishop Oedgrim the following
facts are recorded. He was present at the consecration of Lund
cathedral in 1145. During his episcopate the abbey at Varnhem was
founded (1150) by some Cistercians of Clairvaux who came from
Alvastra. Finally in 1151 Bishop Oedgrim consecrated part of the
present cathedral, which Bishop Benedict I (1158-90) enlarged and
furnished. The latter also built the Churches of St. Nicholas and
of St. Peter at Skara as well as many roads and bridges. Bishop
Jerpulf (1191-1201) persuaded a popular assembly at Askubeck to
assign to the bishop part of the tithe. Benedict II (1217-30)
founded several secular canonries in 1220, and thus originated the
cathedral chapter. St. Bryniolph Algotsson is the best known
bishop. He studied for eighteen years at Paris, became dean of
Linkoping, and in 1278 Bishop of Skara. He issued statutes in
1231, and composed hymns and other works, amongst them a "Life
of St. Helena of Skoffde" (Schedvia), who was murdered in
1140 and was canonized by Pope Honorius III, and whose remains
were translated to Upsala in 1164. She was also greatly venerated
at Tidsvilde (Zealand) and elsewhere in Denmark. St. Bryniolph
died on 6 February, 1317. In 1499 Alexander Vi granted leave for
the translation of his relics, but St. Bryniolph was never
formally canonized. Under him and his successor, Bishop Benedict
III Tunnesson (1317-21), that is between 1312 and 1320, the whole
of the cathedral was restored. Bishop Sven the Great (1435-48?)
painted it in fresco.

Bishop Bryniolph III Gerlaktsson
(1478-1505) regulated the frontier between his diocese and that of
Lund. His successor, Bishop Vincent Hennings, was beheaded by
Christian II at the Massacre of Stockholm on 8 November, 1520,
although he protested aloud on his way to the scaffold against the
injustice of his condemnation. Then came Magnus Haraldsson (1523),
who election was not confirmed by the pope in spite of King
Gustavus I Vasa's request. Johannes Franciscus de Potentia, a
Franciscan, was nominated Bishop of Skara the same year by papal
provision, but the king refused to receive him. Bishop Magnus
Haraldsson, though at first submissive towards Gustavus I, led his
diocesans to Larf to take part in the rising of 1529. He was
accordingly deposed by the king, who appointed in 1530 a
Protestant, Svend Jacobsson, in his place. Besides Skara cathedral
and the abbey church at Varnhem, there are interesting romanesque
churches at Asklanda and elsewhere. At Husaby there was a spring
dedicated to St. Brigid of Kildare. This Irish dedication may be
accounted for by the fact that Olaf Skotkonung was, as mentioned
above, baptized there in 1008 by Sigurd, court bishop of King Olaf
Tryggveson, who had many connections with Ireland. St. Olaf was
specially venerated at Dalby and Elgaa in Vermland.

At Skara the cathedral chapter
consisted latterly of a dean, an archdeacon, a subdean, and
twenty-one canons. There were also in the town a Franciscan priory
dating from about 1242 and a Dominican priory from about 1260. At
Lodose there were also Franciscans from 1283 and Dominicans from
1286. Finally there were the Cistercian monastery at Varnhem and
the Cistercian nunnery at Gudhem; the latter was founded about
1160.